Entries tagged with mini-challenge 2009

How do you make large storyverses, with multiple settings, key characters and storylines work? I know I tend to treat each set of stories as fairly independent from each other, and let readers spot the little links rather than trying to fill in the backstory of every single place or person which gets mentioned in passing. There are a few key things which need to be established in most stories (I can do the 'Light wars ever against Dark' spiel off by heart by now, and the underlying principles of magic remain the same, as does the importance of being able to move between worlds). Even with those key things, though, I don't include them in every piece. Even with those precautions, I try to be aware as I'm writing that my reader might not understand the piece if they haven't read other things. My fear, particularly with my main storyverse, is that I'll end up getting so self-referential that it will become incomprehensible.

Not going to be a long ramble this week, I'm afraid, as LJ seems to hate me today and this has taken hours already. So, I'm curious - what's the weirdest bit of feedback you've ever had for a story? (I'm still revelling in a recent story rejection which informed me that one of my Saisorhi sounded like a fourteen year old who had overdosed on King Lear ^___^)

I've seen a few published authors say that the story they hate the most is always the one they're writing at the time. Now me, I have a different reaction. I've been doing a final proofread of a short story all week, fussing about with commas and consistent capitalisation, and have come to the conclusion that the story I hate the most at any given time is the one that I'm editing.

So, what about you? Which stage in the creative process has you snarling at the computer screen, tearing your hair out at the roots and chewing lumps out of the end of your biro? Planning, writing, redrafting, proofreading? Is it exposition that breaks your brain or are you someone who hates fight sequences? Would you always choose a line of stars over a love scene, or does your heart sink at the prospect of describing a view? Have a rant about a technical aspect of writing you really, really loathe.

Well, it's been a while since we last had a round-up (4th Jan), and even longer since I last got off my arse to write one. Here goes.

I've been looking at some of the discussion which came out of the last round-up, and we seem to be agreed that general writing discussions get the most interesting responses and would be a good addition to the round-up. And, as there was a reason that I starting thinking about these round-ups again (apart from marking procrastination - I swear, Sisyphus had it easy), I thought I'd take that as a starting point. I've been very focussed on Wind's Road lately, possibly to the detriment of other projects, but I've found myself increasingly bogged down over the last few weeks. It's partly because of a slowing of pace for plotting and structure reasons, of course, but I'm finding it hard to push through to the next crisis point.

So I tried to remember what I've done in the past to tackle this sort of sludginess, and realised that my usual trick was to pick up one of the weekly challenge words. The chance to write something quick and self-contained is very refreshing, and they were always an easy way to explore a new character, different perspective or to play with a new style or setting. I've used some of our other recurring challenges in the same way (chain-haiku, anyone? Go on), and it can be quite effective.

So how do the rest of you deal with being bogged down with a particular story? Do you write something else for a while or slug on through the sticky patch? Is writing unrelated snippets too much of a distraction? Do you become so absorbed into one world that you can't even consider other stories?

It's been a while since the last round-up. Actually, it's been a longer while than I planned/wanted/feared. But there you go. First round-up of the year 2009. I hope everyone's (calendar) years are off to a marvellous start!

This round-up will look a little differently, in that I'll just list things as I find them and try to ramble it all into one whole. Unintentionally (or not, of course) giving you some insight in how I gather the information in the round-ups.